The Runespear

The Runespear Card

The Runespear is a 8 Mana Cost Legendary Shaman Weapon card from the Kobolds and Catacombs set!

Card Text

After your hero attacks, Discover a spell and cast it with random targets.

Flavor Text

When asked what the runes do, the tauren smith smiled: "A little of this, a little of that..."

The Runespear Additional Information

  1. If you choose a spell that has Overload, you WILL be Overloaded. – Source

The Runespear Card Review

Sigh. Sometimes we just have to be blunt and there’s no getting around it – paying 8 mana for a 3/3 weapon feels miserable. Attacking with this weapon better be worth your investment, in terms of mana, tempo, board, etc. Sinking 8 crystals into a 3-attack weapon is hard to justify, so before anything else, we have to ask the question “does this card justify it?” Personally, I think that the answer is “no”. If we look at the available Discover pool for this card, aka Shaman spells, we quickly come back down to Azeroth to realize that there is a lot of bad with all the good and for the each great option there are many “worst of the worse” options as well. Given that the targets are random, you really want to be picking, if possible, from spells that don’t target, such as Shaman’s board clears, BloodlustEvolve or Devolve, etc. However, some of the more impactful AoE spells are symmetrical, and for every spell that doesn’t target there are at least twice as many that do, ranging from damage, removal, buffs, etc. Put simply, Totemic Might and Cryostasis are more likely results than Far Sight. Obviously we don’t yet know what new spells Shaman will be receiving and things can potentially always change in the future, but right now it’s not looking too for The Runespear.

There is also the fact that this card is extremely slow. Now, that’s not the biggest factor here, considering that it’s very likely that it is at it’s least worst when you don’t have any minions and the opponent does, but then an 8-cost 3/3 weapon feels even worse. Given that it is you as the player who actually casts the spells, you also have to take into account that spells with Overload will overload you, further increasing the cost that you pay for it. Despite all that, we have to give this weapon its due diligence. In the event that you do end up getting this weapon, either for free through an effect or with a discount, it does become one of the better legendary weapons out there.

Card Review by Chimbarozo

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33 Comments

  1. CD001
    December 13, 2017 at 6:08 AM

    This was my free legendary weapon… and I can confirm, yes, it’s pretty bad 😐

    The random factor completely kills it… when you need to get that extra 4 damage to kill something, you’ll not get any of the spells that do that (and Shaman has several) or, if you do, it’ll target your own minion. If you’ve got an empty board, guaranteeing whatever is cast will target an enemy minion you’ll not get the choice of any removal cards…

    About the best you can hope for is Lightning Storm or, maybe, Evolve. If it was “discover a spell and set its cost to 0” it might be playable as a late game, high value card, in a control oriented deck – as it stands, having this in your deck costs you more games than it saves.

  2. Planeguy
    December 8, 2017 at 7:53 AM

    Dust

  3. Imaloony
    November 26, 2017 at 1:54 AM

    Another meme weapon. Too hard to control, too expensive, too likely to blow up in your face. It may have some interesting spells it works with that don’t care about targets, and if you get three of those off, this may even get value. But it’s too unlikely to work out like that in the end.

    Same deal in Arena.

    Standard: 1/5
    Arena: 1/5

  4. Razik
    November 24, 2017 at 10:17 AM

    I have maybe stupid question why in description of this card is “random targets” not random target? (everyone knows aoe spells works on all targets).

    • Boneless
      November 25, 2017 at 7:32 PM

      I can’t say for certain. What I can say is that not every spell you discover will hit all minions.

  5. Jack
    November 21, 2017 at 12:23 PM

    This card is great! A bit slow for the meta but 3x tortolan primalist on a 3/3 weapon seems bonkers. Yeah you might get overloaded but you still get another free spell on the following turn. Shaman has board clears so if you need one desperately this might give you one. I see this card slaying in arena.

  6. to
    November 21, 2017 at 11:36 AM

    Total garbage wtf blizzard lay off the crack..

    • DyingHawk
      November 21, 2017 at 1:14 PM

      It’s fantastic, you may have a few duds of three one target removals but there are so many good spells and so much potential value the card is great. Aluneth on the other hand is hot garbage…

  7. EPOCH
    November 21, 2017 at 3:54 AM

    Another useless card! Hail to the Blizzard! Absolutely Crap…

  8. Crapcrack
    November 21, 2017 at 3:02 AM

    Too slow, too much rng, too bad! C’mon Blizzard!

  9. Roberto
    November 21, 2017 at 12:54 AM

    Can you discover other classes spells?

  10. MarmotMurloc
    November 20, 2017 at 5:31 PM

    Ouch, I was really hoping for some super good shaman weapons, it’s the main class I play…
    Something along the lines of: 6 cost 3/2 with “whenever you attack transform your minions into ones that cost one more” This would still be bulky, but would be a double evolve trigger that you could bring in two turns earlier, which I prefer to this tortalan primalist weapon.

    I just feel like this weapon will be way to bulky. It would be better almost if you couldn’t attack with it and the ability just activated three times! By turn 8 you’ll be attacking the lich king with a 3 damage weapon, which just seems a little to risky for me.
    I still hold out hope that shaman will get something nice, something that makes Murloc quest viable maybe! (But with Murloc quest, it may need a lot of somethings)
    Oh well, still looking forward for the other legendaries!

    • Jonathan Lehrmann
      November 22, 2017 at 6:34 PM

      Lol at your thinking your weapon suggestion would be anything other than ridiculously OP.

      • MarmotMurloc
        November 22, 2017 at 10:57 PM

        Hey, I mean, sure it would be great but thrall cost five, double evolves and improves your hero power. Nerf it to a 2/2 if you want, but it would really be that bad woth acidic ooze and especially that bloodshot corsair! I think it would really be that unbalanced, maybe 2/2 for 7, but that might be too weak. Thanks for the opinion though!

  11. Playwright
    November 20, 2017 at 4:53 PM

    This just seems like an improved version of Primalist, and since I found Primalist nine times out of ten is more helpful then hurtful I would be willing to use this if it means it removes some of the risk of Primalist and allowed me to use it three times at the cost of it being a weapon instead of minion.

  12. Nope
    November 20, 2017 at 4:37 PM

    I think we all know the real class legendary should be Doomhammer.

    • Highball
      December 23, 2017 at 10:16 PM

      The Fist of Ra-Den woulda been cool too. Overload and draw a card or something

  13. sober667
    November 20, 2017 at 4:28 PM

    Everythink depends on spels in expansion and synergy with overload. if will be big that card will be busted even if you get drow/ AOE/even two wolfs2/3 with provoke is nice value lets think at turn 8 is deal 8 damage and cast spell wich is another 3 mana so its geting like 6 mana value instantly and next 2 attacks will be same
    For control deck not bad

    • Jonathan Lehrmann
      November 22, 2017 at 6:34 PM

      Wtf are you saying. Provoke? Drow?

  14. Xander Raidon
    November 20, 2017 at 4:16 PM

    An 8 mana 3/3 weapon (that casts 1 random spell with random targets, to a possibility of maximum 3) is pretty damn weak & slow. It needs some serious synergy like 10 mana Shaman spell that fully heals hero and draws 3 cards.

  15. Nightfall
    November 20, 2017 at 1:44 PM

    wow, this card really sucks. I mean, the spells can backfire, attacking your own minions.

  16. seenowthepowerofthegodfather
    November 20, 2017 at 1:17 PM

    at the very least its deal 3 damage and cast a spell of your choosing

    • ab00000
      November 30, 2017 at 10:49 PM

      What do you mean at the very least? That’s exactly all the card does

  17. af
    November 20, 2017 at 1:13 PM

    if this overloads crystals then theres no chance.

  18. D00mnoodle
    November 20, 2017 at 1:09 PM

    Too slow and risky, but very fun. If you overload from it (yogg saron overloads you too) it’s pretty bad, but if it doesn’t it might be strong with stuff like lightning storm, feral spirit or volcano. Also potentially very strong in arena.

    1/5 in constructed, 3/5 in arena, 5/5 fun

  19. SimEgg
    November 20, 2017 at 1:05 PM

    If you pick a overload card, say Volcano, do you overload?

    • D00mnoodle
      November 20, 2017 at 1:10 PM

      yogg saron overloads you, so i guess it does. (for the record i don’t think it should though, since yogg saron (or this weapon) is casting the spell and not you)

      • MrMeme
        November 21, 2017 at 1:05 AM

        But does Tortollan Primalist overload you?

        • D00mnoodle
          November 21, 2017 at 1:39 AM

          I actually don’t know if he does. The reason i know about yogg is because i experienced it first hand in a game. I haven’t played primalist yet so i cant say.

        • Goon
          November 21, 2017 at 10:52 AM

          Yes. Overload is part of the card text, so it’s applied to the player as an effect of the spell. Tortollan Primalist applies overload and this almost certainly will too.

  20. Spirit
    November 20, 2017 at 12:32 PM

    You’re too slow!!